Gurel, Praggnanandhaa Come Close But No Cigar
After draws on all boards in round six, GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Aravindh Chithambaram stay in the lead by a point in the 2025 Prague Chess Festival Masters. GM Ediz Gurel came closest to achieving a decisive game when with Black he outplayed GM Wei Yi, who was low on time. GM Sam Shankland vs. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was another sharp encounter that ended in peace despite both players fighting for the win at different points.
Round seven is on Wednesday, March 5, starting at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CET / 7:30 p.m. IST.
Masters: Wei Escapes His 3rd Loss
The three other games were relatively eventless affairs. Though GMs Thai Dai Van Nguyen and Vincent Keymer reached endgames a pawn up, respectively against GMs David Navara and Anish Giri, there weren't real winning chances in either one.
Masters Round 6 Results
That means Aravindh's decision to take zero risk against GM Liem Le paid off, as he's still in the shared lead with one round less to go.
Masters Standings After Round 6
The games of the two leaders were stark contrasts: Aravindh and Le quickly reached an equal endgame and agreed to a draw, while Shankland's pawn sacrifice against Praggnanandhaa ensured a dynamic game.
Aravindh ½-½ Le
Aravindh thought for the first time on move 20 in a Queen's Gambit Declined, when Le played the first new move 20...Rc8. The Indian grandmaster still had the same hour and 30 minutes he started with, but he expended 40 minutes to play his next four moves.
He gave Black an isolated queen's pawn, but White still had no advantage whatsoever. Le didn't even have to suffer and the players agreed to a draw in the rook endgame soon after. It's a safe return from the rest day for both players.
Shankland ½-½ Praggnanandhaa
The Italian Opening was the opposite of "pianissimo" in this game as Shankland jettisoned his d-pawn to get a knight to f5. Then, he sacrificed that knight to open the enemy king. After repeating twice, the American GM bravely avoided a repetition of moves with 30.f6!, playing the best move in the position even when he may have bad memories of over-reaching in previous rounds.
But those memories must have fluttered into his head pretty soon after 35.Rd1?, and within a few moves Praggnanandhaa grabbed the f6-pawn and the advantage. Unfortunately, the game didn't last much longer, and the players got stuck in a forced repetition. GM Rafael Leitao goes over the game below.
We can say it was a missed chance for Shankland, but it was perhaps a bigger missed opportunity for Praggnanandhaa, who could have shot into the sole lead if he had won.
Wei ½-½ Gurel
"Half of the game I just couldn't understand what we were both doing," said Gurel after the other big fight of the day. The Turkish prodigy, who spent some of his rest day shooting local zombies (virtual reality) at a place called Playground, didn't quite land the killer shot against the Chinese number-one.
Half of the game I just couldn't understand what we were both doing.
—Ediz Gurel
The moment things turned around was 36...b6!, and Black took over. He converted the advantage spectacularly and just had to keep the fire burning in the most critical moment. An exchange sacrifice 45...Rxb4! would have been the brilliant way—he saw it, just couldn't properly assess—while 45...Qb6 would have also kept a decisive advantage. In the end, Wei slipped away.
Keymer ½-½ Giri
Keymer came with a slightly new idea in a well-trodden line of the Catalan Opening, but Giri handled it well. The Dutch number-one traded all the rooks, initiated more pawn trades with 19...b6 and 22...f5, and ultimately held a pawn-down bishop vs. knight endgame with three vs. two pawns on the same side.
It's a sixth draw for Giri, while Keymer remains a point and a half away from the leader.
Van Nguyen ½-½ Navara
Black's position looked passive around move 17, when the bishop was staring at its own pawns, but Navara solved this problem over the course of several moves by finally achieving the pawn break 22...c5. Van Nguyen did have an extra pawn in the rook endgame, but Navara showed it wasn't enough to win.
As we learned in the last round of Tata Steel Chess 2025, when both leaders lost their games, it only takes one loss by the leaders for things to get really spicy. Praggnanandhaa will have White against Wei, who despite the scare today did win his previous two games, and Aravindh will defend against Giri—a player who we can expect will fight hard against making his seventh draw.
Pairings For Round 7 | Masters
Challengers: Bjerre Joins Yakubboev In Lead
No five draws in the Challengers section; instead, we saw three decisive games. GM Jonas Bjerre scored his third win, against GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi, to join GM Nodirbek Yakubboev in the lead. IM Vaclav Finek picked up his first win in the event against IM Divya Deshmukh to recover from two losses, and GM Ma Qun also won his first game after making five draws previously, against FM Jachym Nemec.
Yakubboev was better and at one point winning against GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis, while the other game that ended in a draw was stable throughout.
Round 6 Results | Challengers
The two leaders are a point ahead of the field, and they already made a draw with each other in round four.
Standings After Round 6 | Challengers
Bjerre will look to win another game against a struggling Divya, even if he has the black pieces. Yakubboev vs. Salgado is bound to be another interesting encounter as the two leaders try to break clear.
Pairings For Round 7 | Challengers
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You can check out the games on our dedicated events page.
The 2025 Prague Chess Festival takes place on February 26-March 7 at the Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. The format is a round-robin with 10 players. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting on move one.
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